A statement from the Right Honourable Helen Clark and the active former members of The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response Given the mpox emergency, stakeholders including the World Health Organization headquarters and regional offices, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, international and regional health actors and those who can finance the response must ensure a co-ordinated and transparent plan to protect people’s lives and stop the spread of mpox. The Independent Panel will be monitoring the ongoing response to the mpox outbreak carefully, to draw lessons and provide constructive inputs. Our bottom-line interest is in the health and welfare of people everywhere.
People can be protected and the spread of mpox stopped if health organizations, countries and wider stakeholders work in solidarity, with equity at the heart of the response. We recognize the complexities of these outbreaks which involve different virus clades, affected populations, and countries experiencing humanitarian crises. We recommend a systematic approach to the response, grounded in lessons from the inequitable Ebola, COVID-19 and 2022-2023 mpox experiences.
The list below is not exhaustive, but rather highlights the areas that must be of priority in order not to repeat the mistakes that have led to preventable suffering and death from previous public health emergencies of international concern. We insist this is not a time to learn more lessons, but instead to a.